phytocidal

The series of new compounds I derived from these failed to yield the fly-killing potency anticipated, but when they were tested several years later for their phytocidal capacity one of my new compounds, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, became the weed killer of commerce; and the Institute based its patent rights to royalties on my boyhood laboratory notebooks - the only venture I have had which involved commerce.

D. Carleton Gajdusek - Autobiography 1977